Browsing on Virgin BB

MJB · 10-04-2007, 11:34

I know there are others having connection problems, but this is driving me mad!

For quite a while now my browsing on the internet has been very slow. Some pages are taking minutes to load or not loading at all. I've tried proxy servers but to no use..... Email is fine though, so it's not a connection problem.

All over Easter its been awful during the day, but better at night. This morning all was fine until 9 am and since then I've hardly been able to load any web pages.

I'm loathed to call Virgin as I reckon they'll just fob me off or say "We'll have to send an Engineer". There's nought wrong my end so that would be pointless. I'm in the Oxford area so is there anyone else out there with the same issues?

Nikesh · 10-04-2007, 11:37

Internet here in Leicester has been fine.

BTW the proxy servers are being turned off by Virgin Media.

Chris Davo · 10-04-2007, 12:38

Same has been happening to me, sometimes its normal speed then other times it takes ages to load.

pmdelany · 10-04-2007, 13:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJB

I'm loathed to call Virgin as I reckon they'll just fob me off or say "We'll have to send an Engineer". There's nought wrong my end so that would be pointless. I'm in the Oxford area so is there anyone else out there with the same issues?

Yep me, I'm in Abingdon. Like you there's no problem at night time and I had no problem all winter. I'm sure it's related to the heat on the green distribution box, the sun get's round to it around 1000-1030 and that's when my problem starts.

MJB · 12-04-2007, 23:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmdelany

Yep me, I'm in Abingdon. Like you there's no problem at night time and I had no problem all winter. I'm sure it's related to the heat on the green distribution box, the sun get's round to it around 1000-1030 and that's when my problem starts.

Interesting thought. I finally bit the bullet and called Tech Support. Glad it was free as I was on there for 62 minutes. And guess what happened? I was asked "Are you using a router?".
"Yes" I reply.
"Ah, that will be the problem sir" came the reply.
"Why do you always say that? I've used the same set up for over THREE years with hardly any problems, it can't be my router".
"Well would you please unplug it for me?".
I did and to my absolute delight me connection ceased up completely! She kept going off to do this test, that test and all the time I was saying "Nothing's happening, no pages are loading".

Finally it was "There must be a fault with your modem , we will send out an Engineer".

So he's coming Monday to look at my modem that works perfectly during the evening and night (with MY ROUTER), but grinds to a halt during the day. Very moody modem I have I think! And waht could he possibly achieve. The long and the short is that they have a problem they are unwilling to admit too.....

SnoopZ · 12-04-2007, 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJB

Interesting thought. I finally bit the bullet and called Tech Support. Glad it was free as I was on there for 62 minutes. And guess what happened? I was asked "Are you using a router?".
"Yes" I reply.
"Ah, that will be the problem sir" came the reply.
"Why do you always say that? I've used the same set up for over THREE years with hardly any problems, it can't be my router".
"Well would you please unplug it for me?".
I did and to my absolute delight me connection ceased up completely! She kept going off to do this test, that test and all the time I was saying "Nothing's happening, no pages are loading".

Finally it was "There must be a fault with your modem , we will send out an Engineer".

So he's coming Monday to look at my modem that works perfectly during the evening and night (with MY ROUTER), but grinds to a halt during the day. Very moody modem I have I think! And waht could he possibly achieve. The long and the short is that they have a problem they are unwilling to admit too.....

You did reboot the modem and maybe the computer?

AntiSilence · 12-04-2007, 23:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikesh

BTW the proxy servers are being turned off by Virgin Media.

Are they?

MJB · 13-04-2007, 00:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

You did reboot the modem and maybe the computer?

Oh she made me do EVERYTHING!!! And the funny thing was, once I'd got off the phone, plugged back in my router and re-booted I got a good connection with quick browsing

Richy99 · 14-04-2007, 10:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJB

Oh she made me do EVERYTHING!!! And the funny thing was, once I'd got off the phone, plugged back in my router and re-booted I got a good connection with quick browsing

sounds like your router needed rebooting along wiht the mode, sometimes these things do happen and need to be done

Nikesh · 14-04-2007, 10:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

Are they?

Yep I think so.

Quote:

Virgin Media are now in the process of decommissioning all of the ex-ntl: proxy servers. This means any users who have specified a proxy server from this page may find they are unable to access websites in the near future. If you do choose to specify a proxy server from this page, please make sure you are familiar with how to remove/disable a proxy server in case you do loose access.

Link

AntiSilence · 14-04-2007, 20:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikesh

Yep I think so.

Link

Nice

djchapple · 14-04-2007, 22:03

Being both old and network illiterate I have no idea why anybody should use a proxy server or what they do.

Can anyone give me simple (less than 5 sides of A4 paper!) explanation?

US.M@JORHAZZARD · 14-04-2007, 22:06

A Proxy Server = WebCache is that brief enough

14-04-2007, 22:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by djchapple

Being both old and network illiterate I have no idea why anybody should use a proxy server or what they do.

Can anyone give me simple (less than 5 sides of A4 paper!) explanation?

as chip said ^ it is a cache

you ask for a page, the proxy is searched, if a copy of the page is held on the proxy server, you get the copy.

That should be faster for you, and cheaper for VM, because the page request is handled within the internal network...

Chris W · 14-04-2007, 22:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by djchapple

Being both old and network illiterate I have no idea why anybody should use a proxy server or what they do.

Can anyone give me simple (less than 5 sides of A4 paper!) explanation?

You don't use one so you don't have to worry

they are servers that are used to store copies of web pages so that (in theory) browsing to them is faster. Instead of having to go all the way to the original site, the data can be fetched from the proxy server instead.

However, Virgins/ ntl's proxy servers were notoriously problematic, hence probably, VMs decision to decommission them.